


Chosen

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Culture, Angst with a Happy Ending, Culture Shock, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eucatastrophe, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Not Epilogue Compliant, Season 8, Temporary Character Death, Timey-Wimey, background Sheith - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-05 02:19:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17316221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Before her parting, Allura gave Lance markings such as her own, and they were marks of the Chosen. But Lance didn’t feel he was ever meant to be part of Altea. Then what were the meaning of the marks?And then Allura returns.





	Chosen

**Author's Note:**

> For H/C Bingo's prompt "culture shock." Although this fic also delves into a little theory that post-credit clip gave me (as well as _why_ we don't see all the lions fly up at first. It ended up fitting eerily well, as well as tying up a couple of huge plot threads that were left hanging unanswered in the last season.

He was in love with her. 

It wasn’t just a crush. At first it seemed like it was. The moment she had fallen in his arms, and the first time he heard her voice, sent a flurry of emotions through him; he thought this was just one of the million girls who had caught his eye. But in the years since he learned this was more than a crush. 

This was different. Allura had made him a better person, a better paladin. She was a friend to him. A teammate. His princess. His family. One of the most important people in his life. 

She was also Altean. A princess of another world. While that normally was not something that would dissuade Lance—he seemed to be attracted to any woman, inside or outside Earth—the fact that she was of Altean royalty had become a source of unexpected drama. 

For all the talks of Alteans and their diplomacy around the universe, it shouldn’t have hurt so much to think how closed off they were in the manners of romance. But apparently, they were. 

Lance was a nobody next to her. Just a boy from Cuba. And he was neither Altean nor of royal birth. And definitely not Altean royalty. 

But Allura didn’t care about that; why should Coran? Why should Lance? 

But the more he spoke with Coran, the worst he felt: all the meticulous details of interested courters. Were Alteans really _this_ high-strung on courtship? 

_“Exactly what makes you think you’re qualified for such a prestigious position?”_

Lance frowned. He _loved_ Allura. Wasn’t that enough? Why did he need references? Notarized certificates of commendation? _Only_ from reliable sources? Wasn’t this just a date between two young people interested in one another, or did Altea treat even young love with such dourness? Is that what Allura even expected? Why couldn’t a date be something just for fun, just something for them to sit back and enjoy before they embarked on the most dangerous journey of their lives?

When she had arrived, Lance’s nerves had shot up, but her eyes had only brightened when she saw him. She was wearing an elegant white dress—an Earth dress. And when Lance mentioned the Altean vestments Coran had rambled on about, she only laughed. 

“Imagine you in an Forlongian brill hat!” 

Her laugh parted clouds. Even if they were acting against her people’s ways, they were in love, and as humans would say: love would prevail.

*

And then Allura died.

Before she left, she marked him. With a kiss and a promise—“I will always be with you”—and after she pulled away Lance felt a heat cross his cheeks and a strange blue brightness that quickly disappeared as suddenly as it had come. Grief crushed his heart in its fist as he watched he go, engulfed in white light. Her name carried into his throat, ready to beg her to stay, willing to throw himself into the void along with her, sacrifice himself for the good of all realities—

And then they were back, and all realities were restored. 

Later, everyone pointed out the blue marks on his cheeks. Altean marks. And they had glowed in the shared consciousness. All the other paladins, including Shiro, had testified to seeing it. 

“What does that mean?” Lance asked. 

“You’re one of the Chosen,” Coran said somberly. 

But, how? He wasn’t Altean. And there was no more Oriande. But there was an Altea again, somehow. 

He was taken to the world that Allura desired so much to return to but would no longer be able to live in, and he was forced to sit through meetings, to see Altea and Alteans as they truly are, forced to live in Allura’s world without her in it, treated as if he were one of them, despite being human, a man who would grow too quickly in their eyes and die too soon. 

He despised every minute of it. The Alteans’ daily life grew less and less familiar; somehow, the differences between Atlea and Earth used to amuse Lance, or occasionally confuse or even alarm him: the fiery rains of Altea, the measurements of time, Allura and Coran’s panic at the learning how milkshakes were made. Now it just depressed him, ostracizing him from the rest of Altean society. 

Discombobulated with everything else in a world without the one person who would have grounded him, Lance headed back to Earth. He sought the planet’s soil, finding the familiar wet and warm ground inviting. This was _his_ home. 

He didn’t keep to farming. There was so much more to do. Allura would have been disappointed to know he had thrown away his dreams to hide out in the cornfield. But he needed to _heal_. He needed to first get away from Altea. Once he was able to breath again, he called back Hunk, Shiro, and Keith, and together they worked on setting relief trade for the needy planets. He’d take Red to regions and drop off food, and when he was feeling lonely he’d teach a few classes to the children. 

Everyone wanted to know about his adventures as Paladin Lance, and it was hard not to oblige. That little side of him, that boastful Leo, couldn’t help but come out and retell his adventures, though that sam boastful lion had become humbled by his experiences. 

All that took place within a year after Allura’s sacrifice.

*

“Do you miss her?” Coran asked after the dinner.

“Of course,” Lance said. “I’m never going to forget her.” 

Coran gave a sad sigh. “Me neither. We have a tradition in Altea for mourners where we set off little pockets of zyminiman nitrates over their graves. Of course if the corpse catches fire than that’s even better! Think of it as a little nudge on the shoulder by an old friend you haven’t seen in deca-phoebs! I think your planet calls them firecrackers? They’re the same idea.” 

Lance tried not to hurl. “Great.” 

“Of course, in Allura’s case we don’t have a body, but we can always improvise by making a representation with—”

“Can we just _not_?” 

“Sorry…” 

Lance hung his head. How could Altea sound so…morbidly cold? He had once heard Hunk and Pidge compare Alteans to elves, snickering about the comparisons to “The Fair Ones” in myths and the fantasy roleplaying games they loved, how the elves weren’t always so fair but terrible and cold. Now he could see why. 

“Listen, Lance…” Coran began again, his tone far softer than before. “I know you were feeling unwelcome here but we will need your presence on the planet more. You were chosen for a reason, and we still need to understand why.” 

Lance nodded and left. The full moon was out in the blue night as he reached the castle. Hunk and Pidge must have already gone to bed, but Shiro and Keith were still out. Their heads were close together, engrossed, deep in conversation as they studied something in the distance near a river; a moment later and they strolled down the path. 

Lance went inside to his room. After changing into nightclothes, he studied the photo of himself and Allura, set it on the nightstand, then got in bed.

*

The blazing eyes and growl of the lion woke him.

“Huh?”

Startled, Lance leapt out of bed and made for outside; he was soon joined by Hunk, Pidge, Shiro, and Keith. 

Somehow, the five lions, which had been placed before Allura’s statue, were suddenly floating in front of the castle. Everyone looked up wordlessly, waiting in a mix of confusion and wonder. Yellow’s eyes glowed, then Green’s, then Black’s, then Red’s. 

And then Blue’s. 

Lance’s marks began to glow, the first time since they appeared on his cheeks, since Allura kissed him. The same heat crossed his cheeks, but something else happened. Something that made him gasp, and then cry out as visions exploded before his mind.

*

Allura was walking beside Honerva, the paladins gone behind the veil, when the older woman stopped her, hand around her elbow.

“I will not allow this,” she said. 

“What do you mean?” Allura demanded, alarmed as she studied the witch’s face. Something had changed about her demeanor, a sort of sadness and remorse that had not been there when Allura had went to embrace each of her friends. 

“There is much good in you, Princess Allura,” Honerva said. “This should not end with your death.” 

Allura peered into her eyes. Though her heart ached, she would not allow herself to dwell on the fact that her death was just moments away. “I have made my choice.” 

“ _No_.” Honerva said firmly. “Listen to me. I will never earn the love of my son Lotor and that is fit punishment for my deeds. But you, child, you have done nothing but _give_ to this universe. Think of all you have learned in Oriande and more, everything you have experienced in your journey. Go back and plant the seeds for your return back to your friends.” 

Allura gasped. _Return?_ “What? I-I don’t understand!” 

Honerva smiled. “You will.” 

She held up her hand, and an energy ball grew from her palm. Its blast sent Allura reeling out of the veil. She was sent hurling through a whirling mist, unable to discern where she was. Was she back in The Beginning? Back in the Shared Consciousness? 

_Where was she?_ she kept demanding the void as panic seized her. 

But she breathed deeply, steadied herself, and the moment of panic washed away. At last all of her memories filled her mind until every step of her adventure filled her with such sublime clarity that she cried out: “I know what I must do!” 

The mist parted. 

She was floating, in her paladin suit, her helmet visor on, right in front of Altea and Daibazaal right before their destruction. She smiled, knowing she did not need a gravity generator for this; the power rested in her. 

Raising her palm, she folded the two planets in a pocket of spacetime, just as she had seen Ulaz do. Another Daibazaal, a decoy, stood in its place. 

The mist changed again. 

She captured the lions herself, intercepting them from her own father. She found the right place to put each of them, knowing too well who would find them and when. She threw Red deep in a volcano planet, knowing that after ten thousand years the Galra would find it. She knew Pidge would find Green and where. She buried Yellow deep in a planet and engraved instructions for Hunk on how to drill for it; the circles she drew resembled a little like those on Oriande. 

Then she rode Blue to Earth. 

Her heart ached at the sight of the little blue and green planet, ten thousand years younger. She found the cave Keith’s parents would find it many eons from now. She hid it deep within, then made the cave drawings herself, infusing in them quintessence as she knew Keith was sensitive to them and would be able to sense them. 

Then remembering Keith and Shiro’s bond, she inscribed a message to him, of when Shiro would return. 

When she was done, she turned back to Blue, looked up, and sighed. 

Her body had grown weary. 

“I’m scared,” she said. “I’m still about to die; I would rather think of it as sleeping. But…I’ve done this before. I know what I must do, but now I must go in reverse. It’s going to take me ten thousand years to recover. Please, stay with me, Friend.” 

Then she placed her hand on the muzzle of the Blue Lion and closed her eyes. Moments passed as her form glowed pink, and then began to turn into glowing orbs. They seeped into the lion and forged into its consciousness until Allura had become fully fused with the Blue Lion’s consciousness.

*

Lance gasped again. “Are you…are you all seeing this?!”

Around him, the others gave their startled and hushed affirmatives. 

It all became clear: why Keith sensed the Blue Lion. Why he and Pidge intercepted messages of Shiro’s return and of Voltron, respectively; how the Blue Lion knew to wormhole to Arus, why the Blue Lion chose Lance.

 _Chose_ Lance. 

_I will always be with you._

Lance gasped as all the memories of being in this lion— _all this time?_ ran through his mind. 

Suddenly the Blue Lion’s eyes flashed brighter. Her jaws opened wide and everyone watched as in the center of the jaw a shape began to take form. Blue and pink mist forged into the shape of a familiar woman, hair flowing down past her waist. She materialized before them, wearing a long blue dress that sparkled like stars. 

Allura gave a moan and collapsed out of the lion, right into Lance’s arms.

“You’re right back in my arms,” Lance said softly, not even hiding the tears. 

Allura looked up groggily, noticing his marks and then felt his ears. “Your ears…they’re adorable with your marks.” 

Hunk and Pidge bawled as they clung on to one another. Shiro and Keith, who had been holding hands the entire time, embraced, unable to talk.

“Princess—” Shiro could only manage before happiness overcame him. 

“What’s all that commotion out here—” Coran’s voice boomed as he came charging out. He stopped dead once he saw who it was in Lance’s arms and all color drained from him. 

“Princess?” he said, uncertain. “I— _how?_ ” 

“Honerva,” Allura said. “She wouldn’t let me end my own life. I went back and guarded Altea and Daibazaal from ever being destroyed, so when we fixed realities, it would expose the planets out from their hiding place in spacetime. I set the lions up so the paladins would find them. And then I slept in the Blue Lion for over ten thousand years until I grew strong enough to make myself a new body!” 

“You mean, all this time you’ve been with us?” Pidge managed between sobs. 

Allura nodded. 

“Did you know?” Lance said. “I mean, my marks? I thought I had become Altean! All year I’ve been trying to fit in with everyone, that you had chosen me to be on the Altean council in your place or something, but there’s so much I don’t understand and—I felt so inadequate!” 

Allura laughed. “You’re not inadequate, Lance! I’ve chosen you to love! When I had kissed you, I suppose with my magic and my yearning to stay with you had given you your marks.

“I didn’t know everything would happen this way but I was hoping they would lead me back to you, if there was ever a way for me to return.” 

“So…somehow you did know.” 

Allura smiled. Lance squeezed her. He was never going to let her go. 

The lions all roared before they shot up into the sky. They watched as they soared up as an Allura-shaped constellation sparkled among the night clouds. 

Allura straightened up, feeling a lot more strength than moments before. She breathed in the air and marveled at the stars before regarding her stunned friends again. 

“I hope I wasn’t gone for too long? Oh, it looks like Shiro and Keith have a special announcement for us!” 

She grinned brightly at them, who were both taken aback for a moment. And that was when Lance and everyone else noticed that the two were both wearing rings.

**Author's Note:**

> I plan on showing the Shiro/Keith side of events during this same night. Should be up in the next couple days, for the Sheith New Years's prompt "The Future" so look out for that! <3
> 
> EDIT: You can now read the fic here: [The End](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17346362).


End file.
